Bridges to Board Service

Bridges to Board Service: Making our community stronger through exceptional nonprofit board service

In partnership with the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce - Nonprofit Committee, the Dyson Foundation, and Governance Matters, a subsidiary of the New York Council of Nonprofits (NYCON), the Bridges to Board Service program aims to strengthen local nonprofits and provide community members with meaningful board service education and opportunities.

Bridges to Board Service is a two-part initiative offering innovative, quality educational programs focused on the fundamentals of board service, including in-depth sessions on governance, finance, fundraising, and other relevant topics. In addition, a board matching service, BoardnetUSA.org, is tied to the program to help interested board members find nonprofit board opportunities that fit their interests and talents while also helping nonprofits find interested board members that meet their skill and composition needs.

Bridges to Board Service is designed for everyone interested in board service including: Dutchess Chamber members, especially corporate community members; local community members who have not yet served on a board, especially young professionals and individuals from diverse backgrounds; experienced board members who seek to enhance their knowledge; and, nonprofit leadership working to build and maintain strong, effective boards to lead their organizations. While this program is being piloted in Dutchess County, anyone interested in the sessions from the Hudson Valley region and beyond are welcome.

Board Service 101 sessions will be offered multiple times throughout 2016 at various locations around Dutchess County.

Board Service 101 Course Description*

Board members steer their organization towards a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies and ensure the organization has adequate resources to advance its mission.This session will provide both experienced and novice board members with a critical orientation on the responsibilities, knowledge, and skills needed to be an effective board member.Nonprofit boards are more similar than they are different, but each board must make important and thoughtful decisions on how they will function.This course will introduce participants to many of these considerations.

As introduced in Board Service 101, board members need to perform certain key duties in order to legally and ethically fulfill their governance responsibilities.This session will define the fiduciary duty of board service in detail and explore exactly what effective governance entails.Strategies to assist current and prospective board members with effectively governing their organizations, including managing conflicts of interest, differentiating governance from management, and navigating in today’s nonprofit landscape will also be covered.

Please allow up to 2.5 hours for this session. This is designed as an interactive session with the ability to discuss areas of nonprofit board governance challenges and best practices throughout the session.

Session capacity is 20.

Board Service 101 is a prerequisite for taking these sessions unless you are a graduate of the Leadership Dutchess program offered by the Chamber Foundation.

Among their key responsibilities, board members set financial management policies and ensure the financial health of their organizations.This session is intended to introduce participants to the fundamentals of nonprofit financial oversight.We will focus on how to read common financial statements and asses the financial performance of a nonprofit, as well as outlining the key financial planning processes boards must undertake in order to carry out their fiduciary duties.

Following the presentation, we will hold a lab session for participants to be able to ask questions and discuss areas of nonprofit financial management issues and best practices.

Session capacity is 20.

Board Service 101 is a prerequisite for taking these sessions unless you are a graduate of the Leadership Dutchess program offered by the Chamber Foundation.

One important but sometimes misunderstood area of board responsibility is to ensure the organization has the financial, human, and other resources it needs to carry out its mission and achieve its goals. The specific nature of how this is done varies according to the organization’s business model, culture, structure, and organizational capacity.

This session will provide an overview of how board members can foster a pro-active approach to financial resource development including policy making, planning, fundraising, and strategy development. We will also define and explore the various active roles board members can play as donors, ambassadors, advocates, and askers.

Session capacity is 20.

Board Service 101 is a prerequisite for taking these sessions unless you are a graduate of the Leadership Dutchess program offered by the Chamber Foundation.